Welcome to Dev Game Club, where this week we start a new series on MegaMan 2/X, looking at them as different platformers from the time. We set it in context a bit. Dev Game Club looks at classic video games and plays through them over several episodes, providing commentary.

Sections played: Three enemies

Issues covered: Dog Game Club, playing a couple games instead of one, fighting mens for their weapons, playing second iterations, bringing in past favorites, setting the game in its time, mascot games, structure and wanting to choose your order of attack, using the boss for its weapons, technical limitations and difficulty, learning a level, generosity with powerups, run-based play, grinding for drops, some things that feel unfair the first time you fight them, getting the gist, having wall stages, annual release schedule, Mega Man 10 or X, tic-tac-toe enemy board, dabbling in some enemies, not knowing what order to progress, using passwords, possible orders of enemies, damage types and using the right tools for the job, Tim shades Billy Mitchell, deriving stuff from Mega Man, wanting to run, spawning enemies rhythmically rather than placement, how the platforming feels, being more methodical, character design for collision in this and Mario, good characterization with fewer states, swapping, not designing for you controller, having to be able to go to any level first, where you can get to powerups, homework: watch out for cool level design moments, books about the inside, keeping the good stuff, keeping current through peer recommendations, finding a friend group, listening to podcasts, not feeling like you have to keep up, finding threads through games, following journalists, first person football, losing perspective, the ways games are impacted by other media, butt explosion T-shirt, reactions in games, why games hit when, a return to Anor Londo.

Games, people, and influences mentioned or discussed: Bark Souls, Soul Rover, Mark Garcia, Shibaenmue, Resident Beagle, Castlevania, SNES, PlayStation, Pokemon, GameBoy, Metroid (series), Zelda (series), Capcom, System Shock 2, Wasteland, Electronic Arts, Fallout, Dragon Quest 3, Enix, RC Pro/Am, Rare, Bionic Commando, Ultima V, Nintendo, Tecmo, Ninja Gaiden, Final Fantasy II, Pool of Radiance, Baldur's Gate, Chrono Trigger, Populous, Super Mario Land, Prince of Persia, Broderbund, SimCity, Castlevania III, Konami, Contra 2, Sierra, King's Quest, Space Quest, Manhunter, Colonel's Bequest, Keiji Inafune, Resident Evil (series), Monster Hunter, Dark Souls, Tetris, Guacamelee, Sonic (series), The Brady Bunch, Johnny Grattan, Crash Bandicoot, Ultima Underworld, Donkey Kong, King of Kong, Ratchet & Clank, Shonen Jump, Astro Boy, Sega Genesis, Tomb Raider, Spelunky, Super Meat Boy, Blood Sweat Pixels, mysterydip, Junction Point, Jason Schreier, Press Reset, Ray Chase, Bioshock Infinite, John Webb, Prey, Bioshock, Triple Click, Waypoint Radio, DLC, Kirk Hamilton, Maddie Myers, Hollow Knight, Kingdom Hearts, Dishonored, Austin Walker, Ben "from Iowa" Zaugg, ESPN NFL 2k5, Trespasser, Coleco, Mattel, Morrowind, The Honorable T. H. Isismyre Alname, Robin Hobb, David Eddings, Velvet Underground, Bloodborne, Demons's Souls, Drew Scanlon, Jeremiah Johnson, Giant Bombcast, Aaron Evers.

Next time: Finish MegaMan 2!

Notes: The King of Kong person Brett was thinking of was Billy Mitchell

Twitch: brettdouville or timlongojr, instagram:timlongojr, Twitter: @timlongojr and @devgameclub [email protected]